Managing director of Staycold International unveiled the new cooler won by Rudi and Helga van Wyk at Le Chameleon Restaurant in Humansdorp, Eastern Cape. This after they had entered the Wanted Alive! Competition Staycold has been running in Southern Africa. The competition was an initiative to find Staycold’s oldest beverage cooler still in working order, and which can now be proudly displayed in their showroom in Parys.
The winning 1994 SD1140 cooler was bought by the van Wyk’s for their padstal they opened in Humansdorp, when they relocated from the Western Cape. The store has since grown and transformed over the years and is now a popular local landmark in the area offering a bakery, day restaurant, gift shop and function venue. The cooler has, from the beginning and still to this day, displayed cold drinks inside for purchase, right next to their bakery section which sells fresh bread, chelsea buns and rusks, which has people queueing for daily.
The van Wyk’s were extremely grateful to receive the new cooler which was personally handed over to them. Helga van Wyk commented: “This is the nicest thing that has ever happened to us! I can’t believe we are receiving this unit and that they took the trouble to honour us with this handover.” The couple were initially extremely sceptical and thought it was a prank, until the new unit arrived and was unwrapped.
Le Roux, had the following to say: “This handover was indeed a very special and memorable experience for us. We so appreciate end users that value exceptional quality and take care of their units like the van Wyks, who have over the past 27 years enjoyed the rewards of longevity. Our newer units further offer additional benefits of energy efficiency, sustainability and design.”
The new unit’s energy data was compared with the original unit’s energy efficiency, measured with an energy meter. Both SD1140s were manufactured in Staycold’s factory in Parys, Free State. The newer unit compared with the unit from 1994, shows that the van Wyk’s should start saving over 50% in energy costs which equates to more than R2 500.00 saved a year, compared to the old cooler.
This saving is thanks to the R&D team at Staycold, who continuously strive to decrease all units’ total cost over their lifetime, year-on-year, and new technology, such as it contains, was not available back in 1994 when the original unit was manufactured.